A good friend and burgeoning awesome Catch The Mania host recently described to me a revelation he was having while doing CTM shows.  He realized that he wasn’t the show!  Sounds simple right?  Well it’s a bit more depthy and an important distinction to make to optimize success.

Catch The Mania was designed to be super easy, super effective and interchangeable – meaning anyone can do it at any location without deterioration of the product – that is as long as the host realizes that the reason people come to Catch The Mania nights…actually more accurately, the reason YOU WANT people coming to Catch The Mania Trivia nights is because of the presentation itself.  You want people to come to PLAY TRIVIA, you want people to come to PLAY THE BEST TRIVIA GAME AROUND.

So what happens if you kind of make yourself the show?  Does this ever happen to you?  I know it does to me and I consider myself to be a seasoned veteran.  But sometimes you find yourself, for whatever reason, getting nervous or feeling good about talking on the mic, so good in fact that you just want to keep talking, maybe there’s the person who wants to talk back with you and you carry on a conversation that seems to be engaged but is really just you and another conversing over a mic while everyone else waits.  Maybe you feel nervous and want to make jokes or divert from the presentation.  Maybe you just like to hear your voice on the mic.  Or maybe it’s something that is specific to you.

Unfortunately although sometimes it may feel good to indulge in your “Mic Power” there is very little benefit.  In fact even in the best case scenario, say you are an accomplished presenter and very polished on the mic and very comfortable…if you begin to make yourself the show, more than the presentation itself, what you will create is a situation where you, personally, will be locked into that particular show because whenever someone else comes to fill in people will be so desirous of your “Way” that they will feel the night suffers when someone replaces you.  Now this doesn’t mean don’t be professional or don’t have fun, it simply means allow the presentation to be the focus of the night.  And on the other side of this, say your not accomplished, just starting, nervous and you talk or make yourself bigger than the show – it can come off as grandstanding or not genuine and will be a turn off to people.

Remember, people come to play trivia.  They make a night of it.  They are not coming to see you, although they may enjoy your style, they are coming and you want them to come to experience Catch The Mania Trivia, the best of all trivia games.  The true professional will create a night that does not suffer when he or she is not presenting it!  So present well and let the presentation speak for itself – that’s what it’s designed to do.  Have fun.